V 



Frontier Folk, 



BY / 

/ 
GEORGE 'booth. 



reprinted from the 
International Review for July, 1880. 



NEW YORK: 
A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY. 



Copyright, 1880, 
By a. S. Barnes and Company. 



^ 



^1 



FRONTIER FOLK. 



■^"1 7HAT do we mean by the frontier ? And 
^ ^ what, by frontier folk ? The terms came into 
vogue when tolerably well-defined lines marked 
the onset of civilization at the far West, and all 
beyond was wilderness. Yet to-day, with settle- 
ments scattered over all the Territories, the phrase 
loses none of its significance. It still has a geo- 
graphical import, and another, deeper than the 
geographical, suggesting a peculiar civilization and 
a certain characteristic mode of life. It does not 
bring to mind those prosperous colonies whose 
lands, surveyed, secured by good legal titles, and 
freed from danger of savage inroads, have a perma- 
nent population busily engaged in founding homes. 
It takes us rather to the boundaries of the Indian 
reservations, along which scattered camps and set- 
tlements of white men are fringed ; to lands which, 
though legally open for settlement, are constantly 
menaced by Indians ; to those strange, shifting 



4 FRONTIER FOLK. 

communities which sometimes, like Jonah's gourd, 
spring up in a night only to wither away in a day. 

It is the purpose of this paper to present a sketch 
of the life and people of this frontier region as the 
writer has become familiar with them, depicting the 
types and manners of mankind, and leaving for more 
profound narrators the matters of statistical detail. 

Social estimation and intercourse on the frontier 
are based upon a very short acquaintance. A large 
and catholic charity presumes every man to be that 
which he desires to appear. To pry into the secret 
history of his former life, to pass hostile criticisms 
on it even when known to be discreditable, is not 
considered a public-spirited act ; for those turbulent 
energies or uncontrolled passions which drove him 
out of eastern communities may prove of great ser- 
vice to that new country to which he has come. 
The first element of success in a frontier settle- 
ment is that a sufficient number of nomads should 
be willing to sustain each other in the belief that 
" this spot is to be a city and a centre." The news 
that a considerable group is already gathered on 
any such foreordained and favored spot brings 
others ; nor do the arrivals cease until a day 
comes when it is bruited abroad that some of 
the " first citizens " have revised their views of its 
glorious destiny, and have left it for a new Eden. 
The sojourner in such regions — he cannot be 
called an inhabitant — lives in expectation of the 



FRONTIER FOLK. 5 

coming settler who will pay him cash for his 
" claim " ; or else perhaps he devotes himself to 
discovering a lode or a placer, which, if disposed 
of, may put him in funds for a year's spree ; or 
again he may be a trapper, perpetually shifting his 
place as the peltry grows scarce. These indicate 
the respectable callings or expectancies of the solid 
men in frontier life ; but they are surrounded by a 
larger throng of men, who hang about settlements 
with the possible hope of an honest El Dorado, but 
who in the meantime, and until this shall come, 
take to the surreptitious borrowing of horses with- 
out leave, or to the industries of the faro-table, or 
to the "road agency," by which phrase is signified 
the unlawful collection of a highway toll amounting 
usually to whatever of value the traveller may have 
about him. There are no superfluous refinements 
and gradations in frontier society. The citizen 
is either "an elegant gentleman" or a liar and a 
horse-thief. Yet even people of the latter descrip- 
tion are rarely molested unless taken in the actual 
practice of their profession, which they ply, to say 
the truth, with such discrimination as to make in- 
terference with them difficult ; but if caught in the 
very act and overpowered, their fate is sudden — 
they are "got rid of." 

In fact, homicide on the frontier, as compared 
with horse-stealing, is a peccadillo. The horse has 
a positive value ; the thief, a negative one. Justice 



6 FRONTIER FOLK. 

does not pursue the man who slays his fellow in 
a quarrel ; but if it grasps the stealer of a purse on 
the prairie or of a horse from the herd, his last day 
has come. Yet he always has the chance of escap- 
ing capture, and of playing in other frontier cities 
the role of " elegant gentleman " on his earnings, 
reimbursing himself in a professional way ; and he 
may continue in this career even if suspected, pro- 
vided he does not ply his vocation in those commu- 
nities which he honors with his presence when not 
engaged in prosecuting his business. Personal vio- 
lence is, however, mostly confined to instances 
where it is for the profit of the aggressor. The 
traditional free-fight, or killing a man at sight, is 
rare, probably much rarer than in the Southwest. 
Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri, was 
the place where, according to the story, the early 
morning visitor at the bar-room, before it had been 
swept out, expressed his surprise, although he knew 
the soil to be good for vegetables, at the excellence 
of its fruit, judging from the large size of the 
grapes he saw on the floor, when he was informed, 
" Stranger, them's eyes ! " — the results of the pre- 
ceding evening s amusement. Yet in two visits to 
Benton the writer saw not the least sign of violence 
even in amusement, although he would be sorry to 
have some Bentonians around his camp at night if 
the horses were not well guarded, or to meet them 
on the prairie without sufficient protection. 



FRONTIER FOLK. 7 

If a settlement becomes permanent and prosper- 
ous, whether through commerce, mining, or agricul- 
ture, the first settlers sell out as soon as they can 
get cash in hand, and seek new domains. There 
are men who have passed their manhood in taking 
out claims, building ranches, and " realizing " for 
better or for worse, on a journey from Texas to 
Montana, sometimes taking in California by the 
way. Very often the wife, children, and stock of 
the pilgrim accompany him. Often a cabin is put 
up and inhabited by a family, with a retinue of 
cattle, horses, pigs, and poultry in the barn, only 
to be deserted the next year on the mere report of 
some better claim to be found further on. There 
never seems to be any real misery among these 
shiftless people. Their children grow up sturdy 
and ignorant, their stock and chickens multiply as 
they journey on. It may be a new stage-route 
which gives them a year's sustenance, such as it is, 
by their squatting on good enough grass-land to be 
able to fill a hay contract. Or they may go to a 
point near which some new military post is about 
to be built, where they can raise some vegetables 
to sell to the troops before the company gardens 
become productive. Or they may take out a 
claim on some really good spot, where permanent 
settlers speedily follow them. But as soon as they 
can see flour, bacon, and tobacco, and find a little 
in the pocket for whiskey and clothes, sufficient to 



8 FRONTIER FOLK. 

last for a year ahead, off they go again, — not so 
much like gypsies, who will often revisit the same 
spot, as like the Wandering Jew, pursued by an 
avenging angel, driving them from contact with 
steady and methodical people. Their household 
stuff is packed in their " prairie schooners," as their 
wagons are called, and on they move by easy stages, 
seldom taking the trouble to pitch a tent at night, 
the women sleeping in the wagons and the men on 
the ground beneath them. There is plenty of grass 
for the stock, and the weather is pleasant. There 
is no especial hurry or worry : it is only necessary 
to reach somewhere, in time to put up a log hut 
and a shed for the stock, for the winter's shelter. 
The little army of the United States, spread over a 
country as large as the Roman Empire, does its 
duty so well that there is only occasional danger 
from Indians roaming away from their reservations, 
and the military telegraphs are now so far extended 
that timely warning is usually given if war parties 
are out. So on they go, day after day, while at 
night comes an encampment which perhaps may be 
best described in these humorous words of Captain 
Derby, in " Phoenixiana," during a criticism upon a 
supposititious performance of an opera called " The 
Plains" : — 

The train now encamps. The unpacking of the kettles 
and mess-pans, the unyoking of the oxen, the gathering about 
of various camp-fires, the frizzling of the pork, are so clearly 



FRONTIER FOLK. 9 

expressed by the music that the most untutored savage could 
readily comprehend it. Indeed, so vivid and lifelike was the 
representation that a lady sitting near us involuntarily ex- 
claimed aloud at a certain passage, " Thar, that pork 's burn- 
ing ! " and it was truly interesting to watch the gratified 
expression of her face when, by a few notes of the guitar, 
the pan was removed from the fire, and the blazing pork ex- 
tinguished. This is followed by the beautiful aria, " O marm, 
I want a pancake," followed by that touching recitative, 
" Shet up, or I will spank you ! " To which succeeds a grand 
crescendo movement, representing the flight of the child with 
the pancake, the pursuit of the mother, and the final arrest 
and summary punishment of the former, represented by the 
rapid and successive strokes of the castanet. The turning-in 
for the night follows ; and the deep and stertorous breathing 
of the encampment is well given by the bassoon, while the 
sufferings and trials of an unhappy father with an unpleasant 
infant are touchingly set forth by the cornet a piston. 

Nomadic habits, slight contact with anything 
human that is permanent, and freedom from the 
restraint which would be caused by the propinquity 
of neighbors, have fortified these people in self- 
conceit. Although they will in a few months 
desert all their acres for something more distant, 
yet the traveller who stops at their cabin and pays 
for bad food is required to "allow" that he has 
never seen a finer " claim " or tasted better victuals. 
In truth, never was good food so spoiled. The 
best venison of the country is shced thin, put on 
cold grease in a frying-pan (they never think of 
first boiling the grease), and fried until it is as 
tough as a chip and as full of grease as an English- 



lO FRONTIER FOLK. 

man's crumpet. Once in Colorado a request to 
have an egg boiled was encountered by the state- 
ment that " the lady knew how to cook eggs — she 
fried 'em." And fried they were, being put in cold 
lard in proportions of three of lard to one of egg. 
Another v" lady," at the hint that a gridiron might 
be used instead of the frying-pan for the venison, 
seeing an army officer present, remarked, " If you 
can't eat what we eat, you can go without. Don't 
see the use of troops anyhow. We pay for you. 
Understand Sitting Bull is going to Canada to fight 
Fenians. He will find somebody to fight there — 
never did here ! As the woman was paid five times 
the worth of her victuals, and as she, her " par " 
and her " mar " could not have remained twelve 
hours in their cabin had the military post near by 
been withdrawn, her sarcasms were a little ill-con- 
sidered. These much-isolated people look upon 
themselves as Nature's aristocracy. Perhaps if 
Robinson Crusoe were a king, they might be feudal 
barons. Their social standing is sustained only by 
lack of neighbors. But on their own dunghill they 
have none to overcrow them. 

The occasional traveller who may have been told 
that there were ranches on his trail, and that he 
need not take tents or camp equipage for cooking, 
will, if he be new to these people, or have regard 
for his digestion, find to his disgust that during his 
stay he is a vassal at the castle of Giant Despair. 



FRONTIER FOLK. II 

He is alluded to by his host as a " tender-foot," — 
a word which is supposed to sum up everything 
that is contemptible. He may have scaled Alps or 
marched with armies, but a " tender-foot " he will 
be in the estimation of his host, until he may be 
forced by circumstances to live a hundred miles 
further out than any one else, or unless he learns 
to carry food to his mouth with his knife. On the 
other hand, the only term of opprobrium which can 
be felt by these people is that of " Missourian." 
Why this should be so construed it is difficult to 
say ; but the name seems to imply all that is worth- 
less and disagreeable. Settlers from Virginia and 
from Georgia are sure on first acquaintance to in- 
form you of their place of nativity with a pride 
which assumes that to have been born there fur- 
nishes them with blue blood ; but the Missourian 
only mentions the last place he tarried at on his 
journey to "the setting sun" as the spot he hails 
from. Some of these good people, particularly 
those who left Missouri during the war, seem to 
forget that fifteen years have passed since that con- 
flict ended. Their isolation has given them plenty 
of time and opportunity to brood over the wrongs 
of the South, with none to assuage their wrath ; and 
they are still as bitter against " abolitionists " and 
" Lincoln's hirelings " as in the days when such 
things were. 

The miners and prospectors are a much more 



12 FRONTIER FOLK. 

agreeable class. Their summer is passed amid 
wild scenery and in a country abounding in game, 
in pursuit of a fortune which may possibly be at- 
tained by one among a hundred. These men find 
a fascination in their way of life, and, though in the 
main unsuccessful, continue it as long as health 
and age permit. They pass their winter in some 
town where they earn enough to purchase an outfit, 
namely, gunpowder, coffee, flour, sugar, and bacon 
sufficient for the summer's campaign, and a jack, 
as the donkey is called, to carry the pack. Select- 
ing a spot for their centre of operations, a small 
shanty is soon built, and the summer passes with 
much climbing, and much breaking of rock that 
suggests wealth, while they keep a keen eye for 
game and preserve a romantic belief in the speedy 
finding of a fortune. Such men cordially welcome 
the tourist, and gladly share whatever they have 
with him, excepting blankets, which every man is 
expected to carry for himself. They beguile his 
evening by relating quaint experiences, and hint 
solemnly of a spot where wealth beyond description 
can be found. They usually work in couples, each 
calling the other " pard " ; and very faithful each 
pard is to his fellow, becoming only more attached 
in case of sickness or disaster. They are, as a rule, 
an honest and manly race, leading a life which 
brings out many good qualities, especially hospital- 
ity, and, in injury or illness, even of a stranger, care. 



FRONTIER FOLK. 1 3 

kindness, and tenderness. There is no monotony 
in their career. Each day brings its incidents, 
greater or less, and is cheered by the beUef that 
the bonanza is near at hand. Geographical dis- 
tances are nothing to them. Fear they have none. 
It is a common sight to see a couple of "pards" on 
foot, driving the two jacks which carry all their 
worldly possessions, trudging through an Indian 
country, and informing you, perhaps, in answer to 
your inquiry, that they have come from the San 
Juan country in Southern Colorado, and are bound 
for the Bear Paw Mountains in Northern Montana, 
as they have heard that gold can be panned there. 
Many of them have paced the line of the Rocky 
Mountains as far as they lie within the limits of the 
United States. 

In gold-washings, towns spring up as rapidly as 
Leadville has done, but the washings being simply 
on the surface and soon exhausted, the population 
migrates to other points. The once populous 
town of Georgia, in the Middle Park in Colorado, 
which was built by gold-washers, is still standing, 
with its Town Hall, two theatres, and streets of 
log-houses, and is now without a solitary inhabit- 
ant. Of course its Town Hall and theatres were 
of very simple wooden construction, but they were 
once really used' for the purposes their names 
imply. 

In a new town which is brevetted a " city " as 



14 ■ FRONTIER FOLK. 

soon as there is more than one house, the rumseller 
follows hard on the footsteps of the settler ; then 
comes the lawyer, who immediately runs as can- 
didate for county offices, foments grievances, and 
shows each man how he can get the better of his 
neighbor. If there be a military post near by, the 
officers are good game for him, they being pecuni- 
arily responsible, and obliged to obey the laws, 
which seem to be so construed as to enable a sheriff 
to arrest a whole column of troops even if setting 
out on a campaign. The lawyer's process of getting 
money out of the military officers is easy and very 
simple. A practitioner secures a witness who will 
depose to anything, perjury being looked on more 
as a joke than as a crime, and so never punished. 
The action or suit may be for pretty much any- 
thing ; it was, in one case, for the alleged illegal 
detention of an animal which the learned judge 
described as a " Rhone ox," further stating that 
such detention was a "poenel" offence. But the 
unfortunate officer who obeys the summons, how- 
ever ridiculous may be the cause of action, must 
employ one of the horde of lawyers to defend him, 
so that, w^hichever way the suit may be decided, he 
at least is compelled to contribute something to the 
support of the frontier bar. In the Territories 
justice is enforced when the United States judge 
of the district comes on his circuit, but there is no 
redress or compensation for the worry and expense 



FRONTIER FOLK. 15 

of litigation. If damages could be given against 
the concocter of the conspiracy, it would be difficult 
to find any property to satisfy the claim, and a hint 
of punishment would only cause him to remove to 
some other place. The army officer on the frontier 
has a soldier's dread of legal complications, and 
may be made thoroughly unhappy by suits which 
in the East would only be laughed at. A general 
idea of law is taught at West Point, but not more 
than one third of the commissions are held by grad- 
uates of the Military Academy, and these graduates 
find their general knowledge of law speedily grow- 
ing rusty, while it never included the minute de- 
tails of the kind of suits to which they are subjected 
by frontier pettifoggers. With fewer opportunities 
than the business man at the East of knowing the 
nature of court practice, they fall victims to any 
attorney who brazenly begins a prosecution founded 
on his own familiarity with legal tricks and the 
assumed wrongs of his cHent. Nothing, for ex- 
ample, js more common than for ranches to be 
damaged and hay or grain burned through the care- 
lessness of emigrants, hunters, or other people who 
have camped near by, and on breaking camp have 
left the camp-fire to take care of itself : a wind 
springing up fans the embers into sparks, and these 
set fire to the dry grass. Now, although troops on 
the march are by strict orders comipelled, on breaking 
camp, to extinguish their fires with water or by cov- 



l6 FRONTIER FOLK. 

ering them with earth, the ranchman who can show 
a burned fence or scorched barn (knowing that dur- 
ing the term of his natural Hfe he might sue any- 
body else but an army officer any number of times 
without ever actually recovering damages) immedi- 
ately finds out what miUtary command has been 
within some miles of his ranch during some days or 
weeks before the fire, and straightway goes to a 
lawyer and swears that the fire was set by the troops. 
He brings eager witnesses to show that the fire trav- 
elled just the requisite number of miles in the 
requisite number of days, and that the barn or house, 
if burnt up, was magnificent in all its appointments 
and of palatial proportions. Suit is begun before 
the nearest judge for real, imaginary, or conse- 
quential damages against the officer in command of 
the accused troops. This officer may know the 
charge to be trumped up, but he is liable to be ar- 
rested and to have his property attached ; and thus 
he is subjected to such worry as will usually induce 
him to submit to the most unjust drafts on his 
slender purse. If the writer has dwelt at length 
on this feature of frontier life, it is because the 
abuse is keenly felt by army officers, and yet is 
hardly suspected at the East. 

It is a common mistake to suppose that an army 
officer on the frontier leads an idle life. Rarely is 
more than one of the three officers of a company 
present with it, and this one must accordingly at- 



FRONTIER FOLK. 1/ 

tend every day to all the company duties. The 
other two officers may be detailed on special ser- 
vice, such as commissary or quartermaster's duties 
(and the latter in a new post will be no sinecure) or 
attendance on court-martial, or searching where 
lime can be found ; or they may be on the sick list, 
or guarding the wagon-train which brings supplies 
to the post, or absent on the leaves which are 
o-ranted after continuous service. It is not infre- 
quent for cavalry to be six or eight months on a 
campaign without seeing a permanent camp, much 
less a post where any of the comforts of civilization 
can be found. With small bodies of troops, where 
there are but few officers to form society for one 
another, the life becomes fearfully monotonous 
and dreary. 

Old posts are deserted and new ones built so 
frequently that there is little danger of officers or 
men stagnating through idleness, even were Indian 
hostilities less abundant. An appropriation by 
Congress for a new post does not represent more 
than a third of the real expenditure. The other 
two thirds are supplied " in kind," that is to say, 
by soldiers' labor. The money appropriation is 
only expended for such things as the soldiers can- 
not produce themselves. They cut the timber, run 
saw-mills, dig drains, make bricks and mortar, carry 
hods, and plaster the inside of houses. The cavalry- 
man is fortunate if he can leave off digging long 



1 8 FRONTIER FOLK. 

enough to groom his own horse. Frequently one 
man is detailed to groom, feed, and take to water 
the horses of several of his comrades. The Amer- 
ican soldier on the frontier is certainly a wonderful 
being. He is at most times a day-laborer, slouchy 
in his bearing and slovenly in his dress. His one 
good suit must be saved for guard-mounting, when 
his turn comes, or for inspection ; and the nature 
of his unmilitary vocations uses up his uniforms 
faster than his clothing allowance can furnish them. 
He has little or no real drill, and has been known 
to go into action without previously having pulled 
the trigger of his rifle. He has not the mien or 
bearing of a soldier, — in military parlance, is not 
well set up. He performs the same manual labor 
for which the civilian who works beside him earns 
three times his wages. The writer has seen cavalry 
recruits, whose company was ordered to march, re- 
called from the woods, where they were employed 
at a saw-mill which supplied planks for some new 
buildings at the post, and where they had passed 
all their time since their arrival. On joining their 
command they were put on their horses for the 
first time, and started off, armed with carbines they 
had never fired, on a march of over eight hundred 
miles. If the recruit gives his horse a sore back, 
he will have to foot it ; if he encounters Indians, he 
must fight as best he can. 

Yet in spite of this treatment, — which is virtu- 



FRONTIER FOLK. 1 9 

ally a breach of contract by the Government, since 
the recruit is led to suppose on his enlistment that 
he is to be a soldier and not a hod-carrier, — in 
spite of his rarely being taught his profession, or 
shown how to become skilled in arms or horseman- 
ship, the American soldier is subordinate, quick to 
obey, ready in expedients, uncomplaining, capable 
of sustaining great fatigue, brave and trustworthy 
in action. The previous lack of drill causes much 
difficulty for company officers when in battle, as the 
recruit must then be taught on the spur of the mo- 
ment what ought to have been drilled into him in 
camp, where in fact his time has been spent in 
wielding a trowel. But history, even up to to-day, 
shows that the knight of the hod faces any odds of 
position or numbers at the command of his officer. 
If he dies firing a carbine in the use of which he is 
uninstructed (and even if he were skilled in it, it 
would still be a weapon inferior to that of his savage 
foe), he will be lucky if he has a pile of stones 
heaped up to mark his grave. If he lives through 
the fight, he will have become somewhat more 
accustomed to the use of his carbine, and in the 
next engagement will do better work with it. The 
country feeds him very well, clothes him tolerably 
well, — if he can do his duty so as to satisfy his 
officer, and if he does not catch inflammatory 
rheumatism from sleeping on the ground, he must 
be content. 



20 FRONTIER FOLK. 

Generally by the time a cavalry officer has 
reached middle age, his exposed life begins to tell 
upon him. The cavalry, being mounted, are called 
upon to do most of the frontier scouting. Some of 
the infantry are also mounted, especially the Fifth 
Infantry. Infantry in such cases may simply be 
classed as cavalry, though armed with a better 
weapon, — the long Springfield rifle. Marches in 
the middle of winter occur only too often. In 
many instances the troops must march with cooked 
rations and abstain from lighting fires, lest the 
smoke may give warning to the Indians whom they 
are pursuing, — and this with the thermometer 
many degrees below zero. As the Indian is as 
loath as a bear to leave his winter quarters, and 
little expects the approach of his foe, such expedi- 
tions are often successful, if a " blizzard " does not 
happen to blow. This blizzard, as it is termed in 
Montana and Wyoming, or the norther, as it is 
known in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, is a 
strong, piercing wind from the North, which blows 
for some three days, and smites everything that is 
not under cover. If the troops are spared this 
blizzard, they may strike their wily foe, who has 
evaded them all summer, and punish him, with no 
other casualties than those incurred from frozen 
feet and fingers, and in the fortune of battle. The 
quartermaster's department furnishes excellent buf- 
falo overcoats and fur caps, and men can march and 



FRONTIER FOLK. 21 

cmt live on cold food in the middle of a bitter 
winter : but when the blizzard comes, the troops 
must seek the nearest shelter, and use every means 
to keep themselves alive. In many instances their 
wagons are broken up for fuel, as there are vast 
areas on the plains where no timber grows. In the 
sudden changes of station which the Government 
is forced to make with troops, by reason of the 
smallness of our army, much suffering is incurred, — 
as in case of regiments sent, without halt for accli- 
mation, from Georgia or Louisiana to the British 
line. But after the troops have become acclimatized, 
and have learned to be always prepared for the 
coldest weather, they like the northwestern climate, 
which is certainly very invigorating. 

On occasion of any military expedition, scouts 
are hired to discover the position and circumstances 
of the "hostiles," as Indians are called, for at- 
tacking whom orders have been issued. Their 
rewards are usually regulated by the importance 
of the information they bring and the risks they 
have run. Many of these men will do excellent 
service, and sometimes in a modest way. Many 
more, on the other hand, will lie perdtt until 
their rations are consumed, and then come back 
with some startling but highly untrue informa- 
tion. They have proved themselves to be not 
too good to burn the grass, to efface the trail of the 
enormous body of Indians they pretended to have 



22 FRONTIER FOLK. 

seen. These men usually don a costume like that 
of the hero of a dime novel. They wear long hair, 
occasionally neatly bound up into a queue with a 
snake-skin. Sometimes they cut out the roof of 
their sombrero, to permit their flowing topknots to 
wave forth like feathers. They use much of the 
Indian's ornament, often adorning themselves by 
sewing elk-teeth on their garments ; they also im- 
itate some of the least excusable customs of the 
savage. All of them endeavor to adopt some 
prefix to their name. A Mr. Johnson, who was 
drowned in the Yellowstone, acquired the soubri- 
quet of Liver-eating Johnson, by eating and pre- 
tending to prefer his portion of liver in an un- 
cooked condition ; and he was as well satisfied 
with this name and the notoriety it implied as are 
Indians with their zoological titles. 

" Squaw-man " is the name given to a white man 
who has married one or more Indian wives, and 
been regularly adopted by their tribe with whom 
he lives. With the exception of being of occasional 
use as an interpreter, he is an utterly worthless per- 
son. He has completely left his own race and 
taken to the ways of the savage, and is equally 
despised by the whites and by his adopted breth- 
ren. Many of the woodcutters who supply fuel to 
steamboats on the upper Missouri marry, or rather 
buy, Indian wives ; but they do not form part of 
the tribal family, as does the " squaw-man." Often 



FRONTIER FOLK. 23 

it is policy for them to take wives from tribes 
which are dangerous to their safety. A wife in- 
sures protection from the depredations of her tribe ; 
and when her lord and master is tired of her, or 
wishes to form other business relations, he simply 
tells her and her progeny to go home. These men 
have the reputation of being most active agents in 
supplying ammunition to the Indians. 

At the border of the British possessions, some- 
times on our side and sometimes to the north, are 
several thousands of half-breeds who seem de- 
scended from French and Scotch fathers. They 
speak Cree and some of the other Indian tongues, 
but customarily use a French patois which is easily 
understood. Their government seems to be found- 
ed on the old patriarchal system. They are strict 
Catholics, and are duly married by a priest, who 
makes occasional visits to them, and insists upon 
legally uniting in wedlock such couples as he 
thinks have proved this ceremony to be necessary. 
They lead a nomadic life, trading between the 
whites and the Indians, supplying the latter with 
ammunition, subsisting mostly on game and buf- 
falo. The latter they make up into pemmican, — a 
large bundle of finely chopped fat and lean, sea- 
soned with wild herbs, and tightly wrapped up in 
buffalo-hide. This they sell, or keep for winter 
use. They travel in curious one-horse carts, in the 
manufacture of which little or no iron is used, the 



24 FRONTIER FOLK. 

pinning being done with wood, and the wheels 
bound together with thongs of green buffalo-hide, 
which shrink as they dry. As these carts will 
float in water, an unfordable stream can be crossed 
by swimming the horses attached to the shafts. 
These people always camp with their carts in a 
circle, the shafts towards the centre, and the carts 
prove an effective barricade against any enemy 
without cannon. Their stock is corralled every 
night inside the circle. These half-breeds must be 
classed more as Indians than as whites, as their 
actions, habits, and beliefs are inherited more from 
their mothers than from their fathers. 

A great and always remunerative pursuit on the 
frontier is that of cattle-raising. A well-selected 
range, near streams which do not dry up in sum- 
mer, and with timber, or such undulations of the 
ground as would afford shelter for the beasts from 
the worst winter's winds, together with a small 
capital and reasonable care and exertion, will in a 
few years produce a fortune, — and not only a for- 
tune, but robust health for the herder. The season 
when he is away from his cabin, herding up his 
cattle, is mild enough to allow sleeping on the 
ground. He is not compelled, like the soldier, at 
times to endure the blizzard or to sleep in the 
snow. Many young men engaged in cattle-raising 
are of excellent education and social position, and 
very much attached to the life they lead ; and well 



FRONTIER FOLK. 2$ 

they may be, as it gives them all the pleasure the 
frontier can afford with no more hardship than is 
good for them. Choosing congenial companions, 
they build a comfortable ranch, stock it well with 
books, and employ men to assist in the rougher 
duties, either by hiring them with fixed wages or 
giving them an interest in the herd. The day is 
passed in the saddle, the evening before a crack- 
ling wood-fire. The only time when great exertion 
is necessary is during the "roundings up"; then 
their whole property in cattle must be brought 
together, the young calves branded, and the brands 
of their parents retouched if effaced. There is no 
animal near by powerful enough to destroy cattle, 
and there is nothing to prevent their yearly in- 
crease. The Indians may kill one now and then 
for food, but cannot drive them off, as their move- 
ment is too slow. Cattle-stealing is not so easy as 
horse-stealing. 

All these frontier folk eat, drink, and live, and 
after their manner enjoy life. We can perceive 
that they have occasional hardships, but they have 
pleasures which may not be so easily understood 
by people who live in comfortable houses, and drive 
in well-hung and well-cushioned carriages, or walk 
paved streets. A Ufe in the open air, freedom from 
restraint, and a vigorous appetite, generally finding 
a hearty meal to satisfy it, make difficult a return 
to the humdrum of steady work and comparative 



26 FRONTIER FOLK. 

respectability. They have their place in the drama 
of our national life, for better or for worse, and 
their pursuits and character must be recognized 
and studied by any one who would comprehend our 
great Western country. 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




